An investigation into the impact of limiting carbon emissions on the Korean power system and the electricity market

Abstract

To address mounting concerns over global warming, the Paris Agreement was reached in December 2015, which aims to limit the increase in global average temperature. South Korea has set a highly ambitious target to reduce emissions and submitted an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). Based on the INDC, we investigated the impact of limiting carbon emissions on the power system and the electricity market in Korea. Through detailed simulations on assumed plausible scenarios, this work highlights a) the effects of different carbon emission targets on the annual carbon emission volumes, generation costs, and carbon price; b) the generation mix changes induced by carbon emission limits; and c) the difference in system marginal price and payments for generator owners that carbon emission constraint creates in electricity markets under three different pricing rules.